All These Years
by LadieLazarus
Summary: Four old friends gather for drinks and remembering. Set about 34 ABY. Corran/Mirax Wedge/Iella


Title: …After All These Years

Title: …After All These Years

Fandom: Star Wars

Rating: PG-13 (Language, Alcohol)

Summary: Four old friends realize that the only thing constant is change.

Notes: Written for the Rogues and Wraiths Fic exchange, for Melissa. Enjoy!

"Well to be fair, Mirax told me that they were interested or I never would have suggested it." Wedge Antilles, laughing so hard that tears were streaming down his face, placed the bottle of Corellian whiskey back on the table and raised his newly filled glass to his lips, after composing himself enough to take a sip. He held the liquid in his mouth for a moment to allow the flavour to fully infiltrate what had to be every brain cell he had before swallowing, only to being laughing again instantly at Mirax's typical quick reply.

"Veggies," Mirax Terrik-Hotn, more than a little intoxicated and looking smug, crossed one leg over the other beneath the small round table and took the bottle from where Wedge had set it. "When was the first, last, or any time in between that I ever gave you the impression that anyone was interested in you at all?" She snickered and poured more of the amber liquid into her glass before turning to the man sitting next to her and offering him the bottle, which he, gesturing to his own half-full tumbler and shaking his head, politely declined. Mirax shrugged and, taking a quick pull directly from the bottle, set it down in the middle before placing an arm around the man's shoulders.

Wedge had to hand it to Corran Horn. He had probably consumed just as much of the 22 year old whiskey as any of them, but was still the most sober of the lot. Corran was leaning back, sitting low in his chair with his arms crossed over his chest and his legs stretched out under the table. Perhaps sensing Wedge's sudden regard, the former CorSec straightened and spoke.

"Wedge, I think you're cute and all, and Iella speaks in never ending accolades about your… shall we say _diligence_—" Mirax snorted in a totally unladylike and completely Miraxlike manner, and nearly spilled her drink. "But I really don't swing that way."

"That's not what the rumour was on base back in the day." Iella Wessiri Antilles was sitting next to Wedge, with her right hand on her ¾ full glass, and the other on Wedge's thigh. He'd been feeling her hand at a level slightly more intense than normal for the last hour or two, and suspected that the alcohol had more than gone to his head. "Everyone on base seemed to think that you would go to bed with anyone, or anything, that showed the slightest interest."

"Well, that was certainly an interesting take on me, given that I made it my business, at least on base, not to go to bed with nearly anyone."

"If no one includes every thing with breasts that threw herself into your path." Iella regarded Mirax with a knowing look, which Mirax returned with the addition of a raised eyebrow.

"I never said that I didn't do that. I just said that I didn't do it on base. The CorSec had no reason to gossip about my love life." Corran was holding his glass in front of his eyes now, observing, with approval, the deep colour of the liquid.

The whiskey had been a gift from a former Ensign. The boy had gotten married recently to one of the female security officers that Wedge had actually introduced him to at the annual Starfighter Command Ball, and sent Wedge this bottle by way of a thank you. Wedge preferred it to the typical and, quite frankly, boring messages that usually accompanied this kind of news. Especially if it meant that he and his wife could have their former partners over for drinks and conversation. They didn't get to do this enough these days, and it was nice to be able to talk like this with people whose love and friendship had been of so true through the years.

"We were CorSec." Iella was retorting, "You think we couldn't figure out where you were when you came in wearing the same clothes, or looking like you hadn't had any sleep. Just because you weren't having sex with anyone in CorSec doesn't mean we were naïve enough to believe that you weren't having sex at all." Iella chuckled and took another generous drink from her glass.

"Especially not looking like that." Mirax cast an appraising eye over her husband and Corran endured it, not seeming to mind being judged so thoroughly.

"Why, thank you, my dear, but I assure you I was not quite the love machine that Iella would have you believe. My conquests were modest and not quite that large in number." Corran finished his drink and reached for the bottle.

"Weren't we talking about something not related to Corran's sex life?" Wedge steepled the thumb and forefinger of his right hand over the bridge of his nose. "Not that it's not terribly interesting and all…"

"More interesting than yours, Veggies." Mirax pointed an accusatory, though slightly intoxicated finger.

"I don't think you're qualified to comment on my sex life Mirax. Especially considering you refused the one opportunity that you had to get a firsthand account." At Wedge's cocky statement, accompanied by even cockier grin, Mirax coughed on her drink, and Corran patted her back to help dislodge the errant liquid.

"Well, now. That sounds like an interesting story." Iella poured herself another drink and leaned back in her chair, prepared, apparently, to hear a fairly splendid tale.

"Well, Mirax? Here's another fine mess you've gotten us into. You want to tell it or should I?" Wedge leaned forward and leaned, on crossed arms, on the table.

"Me?" Mirax, apparently amused, simply smirked. "I didn't do a kriffing thing. You were the one telling the wife about our ill-fated little encounter."

"You, unfortunately for me, make a point." Wedge sighed. "Well, it happened like this. I had jut returned from making a supply run for Booster."

"The contents of which, I'm sure, I don't want to know about." Corran smiled, and Wedge returned his good humour.

"Nope. Probably not. Anyway, I had just returned. And I had been on a tiny ship for three days, and it had no shower. So, needless to say, I was—"

"Disgusting, Veg. You were disgusting." Mira shook her head.

"Thank you, Mirax. Yes. I was disgusting. Truly earning my Twi'lek name. So, naturally, I headed straight for the 'fresher. Meanwhile, Mirax—"

"Meanwhile, Mirax," Mirax picked up and began contributing her half of the conversation, "had heard that her best friend was back. Wanting to see him, I naturally headed to his room, to which I had the keycode."

"So, she walks in, and I'm standing in the middle of the room—"

"Completely naked. Starkers. Like the day he was born." Mirax gestured grandly in Wedge's direction.

"And Mirax freezes, still standing in the door, and completely and blatantly checks me out."

"I was _not, _Antilles! I was just stunned. I mean, I never thought I'd see… that much of you. And, my audience, please keep in mind that I hadn't seen all that many naked men quite yet. I was only 17."

"The sheer amount of naked men you _had _seen by that age would send your father to an early grave." Wedge let out a full belly laugh and received a snack chip, from the bowl in front of Mirax, in the face for his trouble.

"Tell the story. Keep your commentary out of it."

"Right, right. So I'm naked and she's staring. And here I am, twenty and wondering what the hell she's going to do. I'm thinking this is Mirax we're talking about, so you figure she's going to have a retort of galactic proportions and here I am completely exposed. I was totally prepared to have my ego completely vaped, and what does she do?" Wedge turned to Corran and the former CorSec only shrugged in response. After all, who was _he _to predict his wife's behaviour? She never ceased to surprise him. "Nothing!" Wedge waved his arms a little for emphasis, and Iella jumped and then giggled. "She doesn't do a blessed, kriffing thing! She stands there and stares at me for ages until I'm finally forced to ask her what the hell she's doing. Then, she hits me with the mother of all retorts. Would you like to tell them what you said, Mirax?"

"I said, 'What are _you_ doing?" They were all giggling hopelessly, like children, at this point, giddiness aided by alcohol and the lateness of the hour, as much as by the absurdity of the story.

"So, I tell her that I'm going to take a shower. And through this all, I'm still standing completely naked. She doesn't move, doesn't look away, doesn't say anything to that either. So, I start thinking, as all 20 year old boys are going to do, that maybe there's something going on here I'm not aware of. But then part of me realizes that maybe I really am just freaking her out. Either way, I decide that there's only one thing I can do. I look her straight in the eyes and ask her—"

"Care to join me?" Mirax imitated young Wedge, her eyes rolling back in her head as she laughed hard enough to shake her entire body. Iella dissolved, nearly slid onto the floor, and even Corran had to support himself on the table, lest he vacate his own chair a little before he was prepared.

"What did you do?" Corran suddenly stopped laughing and turned to look at Mirax, still smiling, and awaiting his wife's reply.

"I ran. I turned tail and ran, leaving poor Wedge's door wide open and him naked for all of the hallway to see. It was the talk of the station for months!" Mirax, actually coloured slightly at the memory. "But actually, now that I think of it, I believe that story actually _does _give me accurate position to evaluate the likely suceess, of lack thereof, of your sex life."

"And?" Iella looked up through heavily lidded, and slightly drunken eyes, and suddenly, Wedge wondered if telling Corran and Mirax to get the hell out of his house immediately would be inappropriate.

"My congratulations." Both women collapsed in shrieking howls of laughter and Corran and Wedge could do nothing but follow.

However, the hilarity was to be short-lived. Wedge stopped laughing instantly at the feeling of a small hand on his arm. He turned and found himself face to face with his 8 year old daughter, Syal.

"Daddy?" She looked, quizzical, and yet somewhat…Was that irritation? Yes, Wedge decided, the little face was definitely scrunched up in frustration.

"Yes, sweetheart?" Wedge noticed the other three similarly straighten and compose themselves.

"I'm trying to sleep, and you are all being terribly loud." She pouted slightly, and Wedge was done for.

"I'm sorry, Syal. We'll try real hard to keep it down, okay? You go back and get to sleep."

"Good. You and Mommy should go to sleep, too." Syal turned and, dragging her stuffed ewok, who she had dubbed Janson on Wedge's advice, with her, she disappeared into her bedroom and shut the door. A door that bore several flimsi signs proclaiming the name of the room's inhabitant, a clumsily-lettered warning to knock before entering, and several placards extolling the virtue of X-wings.

"She's probably right, actually." Mirax stretched her arms above her head and rose from her chair. Corran stood, as well, and went to fetch his and Mirax's coats from the front closet. "We've got a babysitter who would probably like to stop eating our food and using our vidphone now."

Iella stood too, now, and moved to usher her friends to the door. Wedge followed, casting one more backward glance toward Syal's bedroom door.

The four friends, exchanging hugs and vows to repeat this event soon, walked the corridor to the front door of the apartment where, final farewells being said, Corran and Mirax disappeared, arms slung around each other, into the turbolift.

"Well, that was certainly—ulp!" Iella's sentence, spoken as she bent to clean the glasses from the table, was cut short as Wedge came behind her and grabbed her around the waist, bending to kiss her neck. "Stop that. We have to clean this up."

"Leave it." Wedge shrugged and steered his wife toward their own bedroom door, pressing the glow panel switch on his way by. "You heard Syal. It's time we went to bed." Iella allowed him to push her into the room, and shut the door behind them, leaving the main window in the now-silent living room of the apartment to bear witness to the passing of what little remained of the dark sky.


End file.
